Game 7 feeling worth remembering for coach Alain Vigneault

Confident that Stanley Cup hangover will not diminish team’s hunger

Vancouver Canucks’ coach Alain Vigneault faces the media at the beginning of training camp last month.

Photograph by: Nick Procaylo
, PNG Files

This may come as some surprise to his critics but, sometime early in the upcoming NHL season, Alain Vigneault will overtake Marc Crawford as the winningest coach in the history of the Vancouver Canucks.

Now entering his sixth season on the job, Vigneault moved to 10 wins behind Crawford on the all-time list following last season’s remarkable 54-19-9 campaign.

It was, by any measure, the most successful season in the franchise’s history, yet it will be remembered as vividly for the team’s failures in Games 6 and 7 of the Stanley Cup final as its many accomplishments.

In what’s become something of an annual ritual, Vigneault sat down with Province Sports columnist Ed Willes to look forward to this year and review the eventful 2010-11 season.

PROVINCE SPORTS: By my reckoning you’re now fifth (behind Lindy Ruff, Barry Trotz, Mike Babcock and Randy Carlyle) among active coaches in seniority. How do you feel about that?

ALAIN VIGNEAULT: Well, I cracked the top-five. You know what, I feel the same way as when I got here the first year. I feel really privileged to be one of the 30 head coaches in the NHL.

PS: It’s an interesting job. Unless you’re the rarest exception, you have to know there’s a bullet out there with your name on it. Do you ever think about how long it will last here?

AV: I just think about doing my job. Every year there are changes. That’s the thing about this job. There are no two days that look the same.

PS: The night of June 15 must seem like it happened eons ago, but I’m guessing the wound is still fresh. How long did it take you to process everything that happened.

AV: I’d by lying if I said it didn’t take me a while to get over it. It took a golfing trip with seven of my buddies to Toronto to cut the cord. I came back and, all of a sudden, I wasn’t waking up two or three times in the middle of the night. But it was a challenge.

PS: You’ve talked a lot about turning the page for this season. But isn’t there a part of you which wants the players to remember Game 7 of the Cup final?

AV: I agree with that. I’d love them to remember the feeling after that last game.

PS: OK, how do you guard against the Stanley Cup hangover?

AV: We brainstormed with the coaches and the people in our organization about what we needed to do to ensure this group has the same hunger and focus that it had last year. I’ve met each player individually and all the things I was hearing last year I heard again.

We all took a step forward last year and I think our guys realize, if you want to play in June, you have to do the right things on a daily basis. It’s interesting. Theoretically our testing should have been lower because we played so late, but it wasn’t. I think that says something about the state of mind and the quality of this group.

PS: Did you talk to other people around the league who’d been on a long playoff run?

AV: I talked to quite a few people about their experience and how they managed it. Internally we had Lorne Henning and MacT (Craig ­MacTavish) who’d gone there. We did a lot of talking about this and everyone agreed this was the right thing to do.

PS: By this I assume you mean your preseason schedule.

AV: I think everything was done with a purpose and it worked. You look at (San Jose’s Joe) Thornton or (Anaheim’s Ryan) Getzlaf. (In the preseason) They were playing not to get hurt.

PS: Most of the positions on your team were spoken for in training camp but there was real competition on the fourth line. That seems to be an area the organization targeted.

AV: We didn’t settle on a fourth line the whole (last) year. I look at Boston last year and they played four lines all year. Their fourth line with (Dan) Paille, (Gregory) Campbell and (Shawn) Thornton was a good fourth line. You’ve got to be able to play four lines, especially in our conference, and you’ve got to manage ice time.

PS: I imagine one of the perks of your job is the free advice dispensed by the media. Tell me, does it every get to you?

AV: I understand the media has a job to do and I’m all right with it. I have to say that 95 per cent of my dealing with the media is done in a professional way. I think I’m pretty fair. You guys are going to criticize me when you see fit and I don’t have an issue with that. I don’t believe I hold the truth. I’m like everybody else. I try my best every day. Sometimes I make the right decisions. Sometimes I don’t.

PS: I want to ask you about Rick Rypien. What comes up for you when you think of the young man?

AV: It’s something that’s real scary. He had the best help you could get. He had the support of his teammates, the support of the organization and his family.

He wanted to get his story out and he wanted to help people.

We all thought he was getting better. But it had nothing to do with his role. You can’t say that a guy who has a physical edge to his game has more pressure than Roberto, more pressure than the twins. It’s a different pressure but it’s not more pressure.

PS: There have been some trying times for this organization recently. How has it affected you?

AV: There are so many things that have happened to us with Luc (Bourdon), with Pavol (Demitra), with Rick. Bones (associate coach Rick Bowness) had Brad McCrimmon as an assistant. Pat Burns was a good friend of mine.

It’s taken me a while and I still haven’t put all the pieces together. You think everything’s on the right track. And all of a sudden (pause) ... it’s just a lot.

I’m thinking, while we’re here you have to make the best of it, because you never know what’s around the corner.

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